Perspectives Flashcards
What are the two perspectives in psychology?
Behaviourist
Psychodynamic
What are the principles of the behaviourist perspective?
The believe everyone is born TABULA RASA (blank slate) and all behaviours are learned from the environment (no inherited traits or prior knowledge)
What are the three key concepts of the behaviourist perspective?
Classical conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning Theory
What experiment discovered classical conditioning?
Pavlov’s dogs
What is a neutral stimulus?
One that at first elicits no response
What was the neutral stimulus in Pavlov’s experiment?
The introduction of the bell ringing
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
One that leads to an automatic response
What is the unconditioned stimulus in Pavlov’s experiment?
The food because the dogs automatically begin salivating
What is an unconditioned response?
An automatic response to a stimulus
What is the unconditioned response in Pavlov’s experiment?
The dogs salivating for the food
What’s a conditioned stimulus?
One that can trigger a conditioned response
What is the conditioned stimulus in Pavlov’s study?
The ringing of the bell which led to the conditioned response of salivating
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through association
What happens in Pavlov’s study during conditioning?
During conditioning the bell is rung before the food is bought out. The next time the dog hears the bell it has a conditioned response of salivating to the stimulus because it thinks food is coming
Which psychologist carried out the Little Albert study/experiment?
John Watson
What happened in the Little Albert study?
Deliberately conditioned to have a phobia of animals by hitting a loud metal gong each time he tried to pet it.
How does classical conditioning work?
Due to a specific stimulus. Therefore it can be learnt and unlearnt
How does Aversion therapy use classical conditioning?
It helps create a conditioned negative response to an undesirable stimulus
Explain how is Aversion Therapy is used for an alcohol addiction?
It helps produce an unpleasant association like nausea (using an undesirable stimulus such as a. drug called an emetic)
Repeated paintings will result in a learned response of aversion from alcohol
What is operant conditioning?
It involves learning from the consequences of our behaviour
What are the 4 key terms associated with operant conditioning?
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Positive punishment
Negative punishment
What is positive reinforcement?
Receiving an award or getting something pleasant for good behaviour/action
What is negative reinforcement?
Behaviour is reinforced by avoiding a potential punishment
Give an example of negative reinforcement?
Taking medicine when your ill to avoid pain
Why you do homework - avoid detention
What’s an example of positive reinforcement?
Getting stickers for exhibiting good behaviour
What is positive punishment?
Behaviour is stopped (person gets punished) so consequence learned
Give an example of positive punishment?
A stimulus is added (eg. Scolding) to decrease the behaviour
What is negative punishment?
Behaviour is stopped (remove stimulus) so consequence is learnt
Give an example of negative punishment?
A stimulus is removed (eg. Favourite toy/phone) to decrease the behaviour
Who came up with operant conditioning?
Skinner
What was Skinners experiment?
The Skinner’s box which used rats to test positive and negative reinforcement
How did Skinner test positive reinforcement?
A hungry rate was placed in the cage and every time he activated the lever, a food pellet fell into the food dispenser (positive reinforcement). The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. This suggests that positive reinforcement increases the likelihood of the behavior being repeated.
How did Skinner test negative reinforcement?
A rat was placed in a cage in which they were subjected to an uncomfortable electrical current (floor)
As they moved around the cage, the rat hit the lever, which immediately switched off the electrical current (negative reinforcement). The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. This suggests that negative reinforcement increases the likelihood of the behavior being repeated.
Who came up with the Social Learning theory?
Bandura
What is the definition of the Social Learning theory?
We learn by observing and imitating those around us - people can become a model for our behaviour
How can the Social Learning theory explain a persons fear of spiders?
If a significant adult (eg. Parent) shows a phobia of an object a child may learn to copy the behaviour because they have seen and therefore learnt to show to same phobic response
What are the strengths of the behaviourist perspective?
- can learn and unlearn conditioned behaviours (useful practical applications like aversion therapy)
- Takes into account cognitive processes
- highlights role of nurture in learning ( important influence of the environment)
- Focus on observable behaviour in a controlled environment helps scientific credibility
What are the weaknesses of the behaviourist perspective?
- Individual differences aren’t taken into account ( can be difficult to apply)
- Ignores the influence of nature in behaviour (eg, failing to take into account that genetics and biology put limits in learning abilities)
- the lessons can be difficult to apply
- by favouring lab experiments research can lack ecological validity so fails to resemble true to life behaviours
What are the 4 main concepts of the psychodynamic perspective?
Different levels of consciousness
How the unconscious reveals itself
Instinctual drives
Triparte model of personality ‘psyche’
What is the analogy used to describe the different levels of consciousness?
Iceberg analogy
Describe the iceberg analogy in full?
On the surface = conscious mind
- Personality, thought and memory
Just below the surface = preconscious mind
- Stored knaoelrdge and memories
Deep below surface = unconscious mind
- fear, unacceptable desires, violent motives, irrational wishes, odpeius/electra complex
According to the iceberg analogy what is just on the surface?
Conscious mind
- Personality, thought and memories
According to the iceberg analogy what is just below the surface?
Preconscious mind
- Stored knowledge and memories
According to the iceberg analogy what is deep below the surface?
Unconscious mind
- fear, unacceptable desires, violent motives, irrational wishes and the odepius/electra complex
What is Psychoanalysis?
A form of psychotherapy that helps patients become aware of long repressed unconscious feelings, desires and impulses by using techniques to access the unconscious mind
What techniques of psychotherapy are used to access the unconscious mind?
Hypnosis
Dream Interpretation
Free Association
What is hypnosis?
Freud’s earliest therapy to bring repressed memories into consciousness.
What is free association?
Patient is encouraged to voice all thoughts & memories which may indicate unconscious connections.
What is dream interpretation?
Dreams give clues to psychodynamic processes which motivate our behaviour.
What is a Freudian slip?
an unintentional error which reveals unconscious feelings/beliefs
What is Libido?
A person’s instinctual drive towards survival and replacement of energy requires translation into more specific terms such as ‘food, love, security, sex, etc.
Libido is also known as what?
The pleasure principle
What is the pleasure principle?
The attempt to keep excitation or tension as low as possible. In practice this is the desire for immediate gratification.
What do instinctual drives require?
Require immediate gratification
Which three parts make up the tripartite model of the psyche?
Id
Ego
Superego
What is the ID?
It’s the pleasure principljwhich is the selfish part of the personality which requires instant satisfaction of sex/aggression
Present from birth
What is the EGO?
The reality principle - conscious rational part go the personality which attempts to mediate the demands of the id and superego
What is the SUPEREGO?
Morality principle - moral part of the principle which is concerned with right and wrong/conscience
What are the strengths of the psychodynamic perspective?
Useful applications - long term deeply analytical therapy has been shown to have subsequent long term positives
- understand motives of behaviour
- Insight into what drives them
What are the weaknesses of the psychodynamic perspective?
Low population validity - difficult to generalise results to other groups (unscientific and untestable theories)
Not scientific - not based on enough quantitative data and experimental research
